


How the Night Ends

by Numerix



Category: K-pop, TWICE (Band)
Genre: F/F, Jihyo isn't single in this one, Twoshot, getaway car au, squint for Mitzu, there's a twist at the end
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-05
Updated: 2018-09-05
Packaged: 2019-07-07 05:45:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15902088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Numerix/pseuds/Numerix
Summary: It started with a drink and a getaway car.





	How the Night Ends

**Author's Note:**

> If you know the nature of Getaway Car and still decide to read this, then you knew what you were getting yourself into.

_“Want to go for a ride?”_

  
  
 

It’s empty, but it is still too much for Jihyo as she nurses down a bottle of whiskey. The singer with her porcelain skin and smooth falsetto sounds nice, but it is useless in soothing Jihyo’s ache—wherever it is. She goes back to drinking then orders another bottle.

 

The bartender, constantly having to worry about the regular customer, confiscates her keys and the bottle. “That’s quite enough, Jihyo.”

 

“I wasn’t done with that,” she slurs.

 

She places the bottle in the cabinet then locks it up. “Well, I’m done seeing you drink yourself to oblivion. Why don’t you head on home?”

 

“Home,” Jihyo scoffs at the reminder. “Oblivion is better than home.”

 

“Your girlfriend must be worried sick.”

 

“I can assure you that she’s not. There’s probably some other girl on our bed right now. Do you know what it’s like to wake up in a bed that’s yours but not completely yours either?” She despises the sympathy face, but she’s too drunk to care at this point.

 

Pity. She doesn’t need it. What she needs is another bottle of the strongest alcohol inside that cabinet.

 

“Please, Mina, just don’t call a cab. Just let me stay a little while then I’ll go home,” she pleads with her hands over Mina’s and a look no one could ever say no to. The bartender gives in immediately.

 

“Fine. But no more drinking. I’m letting you stay to sober up.” Mina grabs a tall glass and pours her notorious “sobering up” drink. “Here.”

 

She doesn’t argue with her after that. She doesn’t care. Or she wishes she doesn’t care. Her girlfriend is off fucking the next girl she sees, while she drinks whatever the fuck Mina is giving her.

 

Jihyo was never a drinker; in fact, she was the total opposite with vitamin water and other health drinks none of her friends have even heard off. But by god did the alcohol taste so good on her lips when she gave in that night—the very first night she walked into her girlfriend and her secretary doing “business” in her office. It was her first bout with alcohol then she just kept coming back to the bar whenever Nayeon had to work later nights.

 

Mina snaps Jihyo out of her daze. Jihyo shoots a quick apology for spacing out then asks her to repeat it. “I was just asking why you just won’t leave her.”

 

Jihyo sighs. She’s gone through this conversation with Mina every single night she comes here. She knows Nayeon’s cheating on her. And she knows Nayeon knows that she’s cheating on her. “It’s harder than it looks, Mina. I can’t just break up with her. I gave this woman my heart and my soul for five years.”

 

“Your heart and soul will heal. Surely. You must know that you don’t deserve to be treated like this, right?” Maybe Mina knows too much is Jihyo’s thinking.

 

She lets the question hang in the air. She doesn’t know what she deserves anymore.

  
 

The bar is still poorly lit with barely any more customers. Mina calls the last call but everyone inside is too drunk, too tired, or a combination of both to react. The singer already left thirty minutes ago so Jihyo endures a comfortable silence. It’s one of the reasons she went to this bar instead of the bar right across the street from her apartment. The other reasons being that it’s far enough away from their home and that she gets a discount for being friends with the bartender-slash-owner.

 

“Why a penguin again?” Jihyo asks suddenly.

 

Cleaning the glasses, she looks up to where Jihyo is perched on the end of the bar. “Because Tzuyu thinks I look like a penguin.”

 

“Oh, right. Your girlfriend.”

 

She used to have what Mina and Tzuyu have. She used to want to have it. But she doesn’t know what she wants anymore.

 

“I want what she’s having.” A woman with black hair dressed in a black trench coat and a pair of sunglasses sits down on the stool next to Jihyo’s. Something’s off with this one that Jihyo can’t quite place.

 

“I’m pretty sure this is sparkling water.” She’s still polite in spite of everything.

 

“Oh, well, then that’s no fun at all.” It’s in the middle of the night and she sounds way too cheery for it. “I’ll just have an old fashioned then.”

 

The bartender approaches with a bottle of bourbon and a bottle of Angostura bitters. She puts a sugar cube inside a short glass then pours the bitters, mixing it with water. She fills it to the brim with ice cubes and whiskey.  To top it off, she places the orange slice in the glass and the red cherry situated on the brim of the glass. “Here’s your old fashioned, just how you like it, Sana. Nice to see that you’re back. How was Paris?”

 

Sana takes a sip of the drink before answering, “Horrible. It was raining the entire time. So Jeongyeon and I stayed in the hotel room for the most part.”

 

“So, then I guess you rekindled the flame.”

 

“What? No. We broke up. All that time alone together, we drove each other mad.”

 

Jihyo prefers the comfortable silence to this awkward one. “Sana, this is Jihyo,” Mina finally introduces them, “Jihyo, this is Sana. My sister.”

 

No matter how drunk she is or how tired she is of putting on fake smiles, Jihyo is always courteous. And so she gives the girl a smile—small but nice so as to not take up too much energy. She saves that energy for when she goes back home.

 

Sana smiles back—bigger and brighter. Jihyo swears that anyone would have been blinded by it. Though, she realizes that that must have been what’s so off-putting about Mina’s friend: her black, gothic-like outfit doesn’t match well with her sunshiny demeanor.

 

“Oh, dear. A pretty girl like you shouldn’t be subjected to this disgusting sparkling water. Mina, give my new friend an old fashioned.”

 

“Stop trying to get my customers drunker than they already are, Sana.” Mina gives her a glare that Sana immediately looks away from.

 

She stands down and raises her arms in surrender. “Meanie.” Mina gives a nod of approval and satisfaction.

 

Sana is a tease. Jihyo doesn’t like it. Her girlfriend (or whatever she is) is a tease and Sana is reminding her too much of Nayeon right now. She winces once more at the thought.

 

“Do you want a little taste?” Sana slides the glass closer to Jihyo—a vulnerable, aching Jihyo. “I promise you I can take all the pain away.”

 

She grabs the glass then takes a sip. It’s bitter, it’s sweet, it’s intoxicating, it’s bad for her, and it tastes so good.

 

“Want to go for a ride, Jihyo?”

  
 

Sana is pretty—extremely, beyond goddess-level, where-the-hell-did-she-get-those-genes? pretty. And she’s a pretty sight to wake up to in the morning, especially now that Jihyo is donning a bad hangover that she’s questioning every single one of her life decisions, including the one where she gets into a car with a stranger she’s known for fifteen minutes.

 

“Oh, god. We didn’t do anything last night, did we?”

 

Sana smiles with a soft fondness on her face. “Don’t worry. We were just talking during the ride. You wouldn’t tell me where you lived so I drove us to my place and you passed out here.”

 

Jihyo breathes a sigh of relief. Her relationship may be shit, but Park Jihyo is not a cheater. She makes sure she isn’t like the girl she loves (and hates) the most.

 

Sana covers her eyes with her hands, mimicking her motions from last night. Jihyo finds this adorable and smiles the first genuine smile she’s given the girl. “And you changed yourself in the bathroom, so I didn’t see anything I’m not supposed to.”

 

This eases her mind a little bit better. “Thank you. I owe you one.”

 

She has her body lying on its side and her head perched on the palm of her hand. If they had met under different circumstances—Jihyo being single and Sana not just getting out of a relationship—Jihyo thinks she can take this girl right here and right now, show her what oblivion really is.

 

“It’s fine. Though, you should head home. An Im Nayeon kept calling last night.”

 

She cringes at the name. She definitely did not just go home with a total stranger while her girlfriend was in their bed probably bringing home a stranger for herself. She most certainly did not just entertain the idea of hooking up with Sana while her girlfriend sends her texts about being worried and questioning where she was last night. And she is sure the that she is not looking at Sana with a sinful desire in her eyes, wanting to devour this goddess of a woman.

 

No, definitely not.

 

What she definitely does need to do, however, is to go home, kiss her girlfriend good morning and apologize for not telling her where she’s been. And she does just that.

  
 

The bar doesn’t get overly crowded on weeknights, but Jihyo still finds it overwhelming. One, maybe because she’s not even supposed to be here; and two, a Minatozaki Sana has started frequenting the bar the same time she usually does.

 

She doesn’t complain though. She thinks she likes it.

 

She especially enjoys the drink Sana introduced to her the first night they met. She likes the bitter taste on her lips and wonders just how sweet Sana’s lips would taste on hers.

 

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” the bartender says nonchalantly as she wipes the counter clean.

 

There’s no one else left in the bar and the songbird had already called quits that night. Jihyo was left with an old fashioned and a very worried friend. She takes the brim of the glass closer to her lips. “What do you mean?”

 

“You and Sana.” Mina heaves a sigh. “I’ve known Sana since we were kids and she’s not exactly someone you would trust to have around.”

 

“I’ll be careful, Mina. Besides, I don’t think anyone else will hurt me as much as Nayeon has. And before you start giving me the pity look, don’t. You know me enough that I hate it.”

 

The bartender relents. “Fine. Sana may seem fun now but that’s all she’s ever stood for--fun and games. You need something more serious than that.”

 

“I have--I had something serious.” It comes out as relief as if a weight has been lifted yet it’s still masked with the same bitterness and desperation of the situation.

 

“Just don’t do anything while you’re still with Nayeon.”

 

And as if on cue, the click of her heels ends up breaking the silence as she approaches Jihyo’s seat. Mina starts preparing the old fashioned while she takes away Jihyos’, “You’re going to want to be somewhat sober with Sana around.”

 

“Nice to know you trust me, Minari.” She takes the drink from Mina and sits down next to Jihyo.

 

Her words directed to Jihyo, she warns, “Be careful.”

  
 

Jihyo doesn’t go home and spends the night at Sana’s place for the nth time.

 

“Won’t your girlfriend wonder where you are?”

 

They’re sitting cross-legged on the floor with take-out boxes in their hands. It’s routine for them to order take out whenever Jihyo comes over and Jihyo comes over a lot.

 

“She doesn’t care enough to ask,” she tells Sana this off-handedly because she’s tired of saying the exact same thing over and over again. She’s got it memorized and it’s gotten dull, yet people still ask and Jihyo has to provide.

 

Sana whispers an oh and doesn’t ask any further than that.

 

Jihyo likes that Sana isn’t nosy, likes that Sana doesn’t even pity her. Instead, she quickly changes the subject, turns on the TV, and feeds Jihyo what’s at the end of her chopsticks.

  
 

The bar is full tonight. Though Jihyo prefers the quietness of the night, she stays anyways, preferring more to dull her senses.

 

“There’s a lot of cops tonight,” she hears one of the customers speak.

 

“Yeah, I saw a lot of lights and sirens on my way over.”

 

“There was a fight at the bar across the street. One of the guys got stabbed.”

 

“I thought this was a safe neighborhood.”

 

“You know how people get when they’re drunk.”

 

Jihyo thinks she’s not drinking enough and orders another drink.

  
 

Jihyo wants to talk but neither Sana nor Mina are there. She leaves early and goes home instead.

 

“Jihyo, wait.” Upon hearing her name, she slowly turns around to meet a raven-haired girl with bright eyes and a physique body. She tries to recall where she’s seen her before but the headache--worsened by the red and blue lights and the obnoxious sounds--gets the best of her.

 

“I’m Momo.” She stares at her blankly. She’s not sober enough for this. “The singer.”

 

“Oh. Hi, Momo.” She extends her hand for Momo to shake it. “How do you know my name?”

 

The singer beams at her and she finds her kind of cute. “Mina told me to keep an eye on you tonight.”

 

“Of course she did,” she scoffs.

 

“She means well. Are you going home? Let me drive you.” Momo walks over to the other side of the bar to fetch her bag below.

 

Momo’s car is nothing like Sana’s. It’s not as clean as Sana, which Jihyo doesn’t really mind. It’s not as new as Sana’s either so that would explain the odd scent. But it’s that odd scent that has Jihyo’s noses flaring up because she can’t quite place where she’s smelled it before.

 

And all she can think about is how much she wishes she was in Sana’s car, how she wishes Sana’s hands were there in the middle of the control center playing with Jihyo’s fingers. The reminder sends shivers down Jihyo’s spine because she remembers just how electrifying the touch was and how exhilarating it is to be with Sana. But then her mind starts racing of everything about Sana because that has to be Sana’s perfume.

 

“A lot of people probably wear the same perfume, Jihyo,” she mumbles to herself.

 

Though she must have not said low enough because it garners the attention of the singer. “No, not really. You’re smelling Sana’s perfume. She has hers special made.”

 

Jihyo curses to herself, which Momo doesn’t hear this time. “Oh. You two know each other?”

 

The singer’s eyes are still fixated on the road, then she takes a turn. “Knew. We fooled around for a while. Nothing serious. You know, just like her other exploits.”

 

Jihyo starts tapping the dashboard, finding the air extremely awkward now because Minatozaki Sana had to sleep with everyone in this goddamn town. “Then what happened?”

 

“She met Jeongyeon. Mina and I thought Jeongyeon would finally be the girl who can control her so-called free spirit. They dated for two years. I guess now she’s hurt her too”

 

Jihyo remembers this Jeongyeon, remembers what Sana has told her and how she thought she could have been the one and how painful the breakup was for her. She also remembers Mina telling her how Jeongyeon called her up one day to say how hurt she was with Sana leaving. She remembers Mina warning her that same night.

 

“Mina brought you up to` this.”

 

Momo elicits a small laugh. “Mina is worried,” she tells her. “Sana is someone you find when you need a reason to leave until she finds her own reason then leaves you herself.”

 

Maybe it’s the alcohol or the lights or Jihyo’s trust in Sana that she doesn’t react to anything Momo is saying at the moment. She’s either too numb, has too much of a headache, or too trusting to even think that Sana would do such a thing. Because Sana is sweet and too caring for her own sake, Sana loves with a heart sewn on her sleeve that she couldn’t possibly be the girl this Momo and Mina have been warning her for a month now.

 

No. Definitely not her Sana.

 

(But it’s probably the alcohol.)

 

“So she ruins relationships?”

 

“I wouldn’t put it that way. She’s just there when you think you need it most. She influences you to do things you wouldn’t necessarily do in a lifetime--whether it’s a good or a bad thing.”

 

Jihyo questions the credibility of that statement seeing as it came from one of Sana’s ex-lovers. But what makes her swallow her own pride is that that statement is the best definition of Sana she has ever come across. Still, she doesn’t budge.

 

“You left your relationship for her?”

 

Her disappointment is caught on by Jihyo in spite of her drunken state. Maybe Momo just didn’t have the chance to know Sana like Jihyo has. “And I don’t regret it. But she hurt me in more ways than you can imagine.”

 

Then there’s the thought that maybe Momo knew too much of Sana. “I thought you guys only fooled around.”

 

“With Sana, it’s never just fooling around.” Finally, Momo’s words pierce Jihyo’s chest as if some invisible dagger stabbed right through her heart.  

 

Jihyo exits the car in a daze--half-drunk and half in thought. She almost fails to thank Momo until she sees her wave a goodbye.

 

“Just be careful, Jihyo” is the singer’s last words to her as she drives off into the night, the red and blue lights still painted across the cityscape.

  
 

Everyone’s words become all convoluted in Jihyo’s headspace and she truly hopes she gets over it soon because she doesn’t think she can handle this and Nayeon tonight.

 

But then there’s the green door that always seems to make matters worse because it greets her every single night to that same guilty feeling that she really shouldn’t be doing this--hanging out with Sana in the late hours of the night, being driven home by someone she barely knows, and drowning herself in any anti-depressant she can find. But it’s when she opens the door, meets herself in the darkness does she decide--all too often--that perhaps it’s her way of coping--no matter how unhealthy it is. But hey, coping is coping.

 

Though instead of facing darkness, her stumbling inside the apartment, she meets Nayeon face to face. Anger is well plastered onto her face, which Jihyo still thinks has been shaped by the gods.  The words cute and mad are what comes out of her mouth and invokes a strange, yet familiar feeling in her--something of both warmth and disgust.

 

(How can you love yourself when you fall in love with your demons?)

 

“Why are you home so late?” Nayeon simply asks.

 

Jihyo drops her keys on the side table as she enters. “I was at Mina’s bar,” her sullen voice piercing her own ears.

 

“How is she?”

 

“She wasn’t there tonight.”

 

“How much did you drink?” The patronizing tone Nayeon assumes has Jihyo’s blood boiling throughout her veins. Though she carries on because she doesn’t think she can handle another fight. Not tonight.

 

“Not that much.”

 

“But you still stink of alcohol.”

 

“I did just come back from a bar.” Frustration emanates from Jihyo’s body language. It may be dark but she knows Nayeon knows her well enough to see that it’s not the time to pick a fight.

 

“And you reek of perfume.”

 

But then there’s the thought that Nayeon does know her well enough that she knows just what she can do to push her off the edge. It is then that Jihyo realizes that this is exactly what Nayeon wants, what she’s been asking of her for months now. She refuses to fall into her trap and give in.

 

“I wear perfume, Nayeon, or maybe you just don’t notice seeing as how you have half of Korea’s scent on you.”

 

It’s so easy to succumb.

 

She’s grown tired of constantly defending herself, building up walls for someone who used to break them down. It takes too much time and too much effort for Jihyo’s drunk self to assemble hence:

 

“You bring home whatever girl you can find, yet you have the audacity to accuse _me_ of cheating. Get off your goddamn high horse, Nayeon. You’ve never had one in the first place.”

 

Maybe Jihyo read her wrong because there’s a pain in her eyes that she’s never seen from Nayeon before. But it’s definitely hurt and pain. She’s seen it in herself in the mirror too many times to keep count.

 

“I’m sorry.”

 

Jihyo is taken aback by her sudden apology. A resigned Nayeon is never a good sign, most especially during a fight when she should be firing back with words only she knows can stab daggers in Jihyo’s heart.

 

On instinct, she walks closer to Nayeon, prepared to wrap her arms around her. Instead, she takes Nayeon’s hand and holds on to it for dear life. They were once each other’s lifelines--perhaps they still are, Jihyo thinks.

 

“We can’t keep doing this, Jihyo. Why did you have to put up with me for so long? Why did you have to be so fucking selfless and caring to someone who doesn’t deserve it?”  
 

“You cannot be pinning this on me right now.” She tastes the salt that’s dripped from her eyes to her mouth. She doesn’t remember tears forming but apparently, she’s been crying for a while.

 

Nayeon lowers her head to the tangled mess of fingers, stroking Jihyo’s thumb with her upper lip. Jihyo is reminded of how such an action would put her thoughts to ease, a reminder that Nayeon has always been the calming effect she’s craved this entire time. If anything, Nayeon was what she craved for when she gulps down a glass of whiskey. She’s the alcohol Jihyo just wants to drown in every single waking moment of her life.

 

“Our relationship has been over for a long time, Jihyo. Why didn’t you just leave?”

 

There’s a sense of shame that washes over her because Nayeon does have a fair point. She hears unfamiliar moans from her own room whenever she walks back home before she decides to head back to the bar. She knows the secret letters Nayeon stashes away and the lipstick stains she doesn’t even try to hide from her. Why did she allow herself to be torn apart every night?

 

Then she remembers Sana’s words the other night--words that assured her erratic heart that it wasn’t her fault, that the whole ordeal was not Jihyo denying the fact, but that it was her acceptance that made her look away. Sana tells her that Jihyo still thinks there’s a relationship to salvage in the mess. Maybe she was right.

 

“Why didn’t you?”

 

The older girl finally looks up to meet her eyes. The line between the pairs of eyes are strained and brittle, vulnerable to even a soft blow. The tension too thick that it blurs Jihyo’s vision a bit as she gazes into the only eyes she once vowed to drown in.

 

“I didn’t want to be the villain,” she confesses. “I didn’t want to be the one to break up with you.”

 

A voice echoes deep inside Jihyo’s subconscious. “You deserve better,” it says. “You, Park Jihyo, deserve better than this.”

 

“Nayeon, answer me honestly.” Nayeon nods. “Do you think there’s still a relationship here.”

 

She sees the disbelief that paints over her face, followed by an Im Nayeon deep in thought.

 

Jihyo continues, “Sana told me that that’s why I still haven’t left you.”

 

Her train of thought breaks as her ears tuned to Jihyo’s explanation and at the mention of a Sana. Nayeon starts withdrawing back, assuming a cold demeanor--colder than the what she had on in the beginning.

 

“Sana?”

 

“She’s a new friend.”

 

“Is she whose perfume you’re wearing?”

 

The younger of the two exhales a deep breath and pushes back Nayeon’s hands away from hers. She doesn’t want to manage an accusatory Nayeon, which makes her realize that alcohol and their bickering cannot be the only constants in her life.

 

She can’t--nay, she won’t deal with this forever. “You don’t change, do you?”

 

“It’s a valid question.” Nayeon discards the solemness in her voice, taking on a more caustic approach to her arsenal of words.

 

Nayeon starts her rant, but Jihyo can only roll her eyes, look away, and recall the moments when they were truly happy only to be bombarded of images of them arguing over the tiniest things.

 

“We can’t keep doing this, Nayeon,” she cuts her off right when she was about to mention where she’s been all those nights and if Sana is the “friend” she’s been spending them with.

 

“Then, leave.”

 

They don’t have the luxury of forever anymore to have the same argument over and over again; they can’t keep tearing each other’s hearts with basic words and the same old tears. It’s not worth fixing, not anymore.

 

“Gladly.”

  
  
 

She recognizes the streets on the way to her apartment, registering them in her memory that third time she asked Sana to take her to her place for food and a collection of chick flicks Sana’s been gathering for six years--a fact that she proudly claims as her greatest accomplishment.

 

Sana opens the door at the third knock, suddenly greeted with, “I’m sorry to wake you. Nayeon and I--”

 

Sana doesn’t say anything but immediately pulls Jihyo inside her penthouse apartment and leads her to the couch they would sometimes fall asleep on after the third romantic comedy of the night.

 

“It’s okay, baby. I’m here.”

 

Jihyo snuggles closer to the warmth Sana brings, tears staining both of their shirts. Sana grabs the blanket on the other side of the couch to cover wracking body in her arms.

  
 

Jihyo wakes up in a bed occupied by the girl who spent all of last night to cure her aching heart. Sana stirs in her sleep and Jihyo watches with a fondness. The memory of her first waking up to the beauty in front of her flashes in her mind and she tells herself that she doesn’t mind waking up to her every day. The thought brings a smile to her face.

 

“You deserve better,” the voice whispers in her head once more.

 

“I deserve you,” Jihyo says out loud.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! If you liked it, hated it, or somewhere in the middle, let me know in the comments. I'm always open to constructive criticism. (You can even yell at me @expensivemyoui on Twitter.)
> 
> Stay tuned for part 2...


End file.
